Being and Dialectic

Metaphysics as a Cultural Presence

Edited by William Desmond & Joseph Grange

Subjects: Hegel
Series: SUNY series in Hegelian Studies
Paperback : 9780791446263, 219 pages, July 2000
Hardcover : 9780791446256, 219 pages, July 2000

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Table of contents

Preface

Part I. Sources

1. William Desmond, "Being, Determination, and Dialectic: On the Sources of Metaphysical Thinking"

2. Vincent Colapietro, "Making Distinctions and Making Differences: Being As Dialectic"

3. David Weissman, "Dialectic As Conflict"

4. Brian Martine, "Dialectic Conflict and the Place of Difference"

Part II. Themes

5. Carl Page, "It's Nothing to Laugh About: The Limits of Determinacy and the Altogether Not"

6. George Allan, "Contexts without Absolutes"

7. Stephen David Ross, "Interruption and Exposure: The Abundance of the Earth"

Part III. Thinkers

8. Kevin Kennedy, "Dialectical Pluralism in the Work of Paul Weiss"

9. Giacomo Rinaldi, "Metaphysics As a Cultural Presence: Dialectical and Metaxological Thought in the Philosophy of William Desmond"

Part IV. Being and Dialectic in Cross-Cultural Perspective

10. Robert Cummings Neville, "The Dialectic of Being in Cross-Cultural Perspective"

11. David L. Hall, "On Looking Up 'Dialectics' in a Chinese Dictionary"

Contributors

Diverse voices explore the possibility of doing metaphysics in light of contemporary critiques.

Description

Philosophy without metaphysics is unthinkable, yet there has been much discussion of this—the end of metaphysics, or post-metaphysical thinking. This book takes issue with this proclamation of the end of metaphysics. It offers diverse arguments that metaphysics cannot be put behind us and has its own continuing contribution to the life of human culture. The contributors are a diverse group of thinkers whose work obviates the divide between analytic and continental philosophy. Here they explore the relations to metaphysics and dialectic, with regard to sources, to major themes, to individual thinkers, and to dialectic seen in cross-cultural perspective.

Contributors to this book include George Allan, Vincent Colapietro, William Desmond, David L. Hall, Kevin Kennedy, Brian Martine, Robert Cummings Neville, Carl Page, Giacomo Rinaldi, Stephen David Ross, and David Weissman.

William Desmond is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the International Program at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Leuven (Louvain), Belgium. He is the author of many books, including the award-winning Being and the Between, also published by SUNY Press. Joseph Grange is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine. He is the author of Nature: An Environmental Cosmology and The City: An Urban Cosmology, both published by SUNY Press.

Reviews

"The authors command the tradition of metaphysical reflection and address contemporary philosophic concerns, taking on the attacks on metaphysics and relating to the global community. They represent a new generation of metaphysical thinkers who show that metaphysics is alive and well. The essays are widely illuminative and technically sharp. " — Robert E. Wood, author of Path into Metaphysics: Phenomenological, Hermeneutical, and Dialogical Studies